Browsing Category: Remote Year

As I’ve been reconnecting with friends and family around the country, I’ve found that the same questions keep popping up about my 12 months of traveling with Remote Year. I find myself kinda glazing over and starting to give the same rote answers, which is never a good way to engage in conversation. So, here I’ve put together a bit of an FAQ about…

It’s impossible to remember everything packed into the past year, but I found a couple of ways to document the experience of 12 months of travel and adventures with my Remote Year Ikigai crew. One little passion project was the yearbook that some friends and I created as a gift to our group. A digital version can be seen on the Blurb website. (Half of the…

What was your favorite place?I’ve been back from Remote Year for almost two months now, and this is by far the most popular question, which means it’s also the question I’m most bored of answering. It got to the point that when a friend of a friend asked that question, my response was, “Nope, you can’t ask that question. Try again.” #SorryNotSorry…

I’m sitting on a rock overlooking Lake Mary, about 25 minutes outside of Flagstaff, Arizona. My laptop is balanced on my knees, and I’m a conflicted ball of emotions. Remote Year is over. It’s been over for 50 days actually. I’ve been back in the US for 44 of those days, bouncing from state to state, crashing with friends and family, and flexing…

I was feeling pretty proud of my progress in picking up Spanish along the way as I travelled through Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. It was slow going at first, but I felt like I was hitting my stride when I traveled to Arequipa, Peru with my mom. She’ll be the first to admit that foreign languages are not her forte, which meant that I…

If the third time’s the charm, then my third visit to Lima, Peru really charmed me. I had visited the city eight and six years ago, first for a wedding and then to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Lima didn’t leave much of an impression on me back then. Don’t get me wrong, I had a fabulous time both visits, the food…

Yesterday I arrived in La Paz, Bolivia, all by myself for a couple days of solo travel. For the first time ever, I spent more of the day speaking Spanish than speaking English. It was one of my proudest days on Remote Year. It was basic Spanish, but it was still Spanish.My First Test: Get into the CountryUpon arriving in La Paz, my first test…

This weekend I saw a sign that said (in Spanish), “I want to be the lime in your ceviche.” Considering how much it resonated with me, I realized that Peruvian food might just be my love language.So when I had the opportunity to join some friends for a dinner at Maido, the eighth best restaurant in the world (and the second best in Latin America), according…

I celebrated my 35th birthday in my 35th country, which seemed quite fitting to me. It was quite the full birthday week. Nearly 20 of us traveled to/met up in the beach town Cartagena over Easter weekend. My birthday was that Saturday, and it started with a lazy brunch at a fabulous cafe, followed by rooftop pool time looking out over the both the old and…

I’m feeling a little conflicted about how much fun I had yesterday. It was our first full day in Medellin, Colombia, and to celebrate Kara’s birthday, 31 of us headed out to the picturesque Lake Guatapé:We weren’t headed out there just for the vistas, though. Our destination was La Manuela, one of Pablo Escobar’s 500+ properties, and our mission was to team…

Meet Erica

While traveling, ERICA BROOKS has gotten lost on five continents, sick in four countries and mugged in one town, and each time she lived to tell the tale. Actually, Erica has found that such trials lead to the best travel stories, and this blog is the place where she shares them.